Sunday, May 24, 2009

The Cwean Room

So it's been almost 2 months. And not a lot to show for it. Except my younger 2 monkeys' bedroom is CLEAN AND ORGANIZED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! This is a MASSIVE feat for me. Last week their room had no floor. Seriously. No floor. Instead it was a swimming layer of toys. Really. I thought about taking a "before" picture to prove it, then was too embarrassed and ashamed to click the button on the camera. But you can ask my oldest monkey. She would testify to the horrific mess. Don't ask my husband... he would not only answer, but then probably start talking about the laundry room. And I haven't reached it yet to work the magic. But just wait. I think I have it written in my planner for Tuesday! Back to the room. I told my 3 year old the toys that don't fit in the toy box and allotted containers for toys cannot stay. They have to go. At first he agreed to this. However, yesterday he was not too happy about the arrangement. He told me, "I do not wike my new room. I do not wike my cwean room. I want my messy room back." I told him Tough Toe Nails! So he went into his room and knocked the Wonder Pets and their beloved Fly boat off his dresser. At the crashing noise, I came a runnin'. I saw him sitting innocently on his floor and asked, pray tell, what was going on. He blinked his little eye lids and said, "Is this a mess?" To which I replied, "It won't be as soon as you pick it up. Hop to it, Skippy." Since everything has a place now, it takes no time to clean, therefore it is staying clean!!! (hallelujah chorus playing in the background)

I have been feeling like quite a failure as a homemaker lately. And I have had my little pity party and (as my friend Arlene so eloquently puts it) sat on the pity pot. And then I started praying about what to do about it. And then I started google-ing for help. I came upon a site called "homemaking 911". How much clearer can you get??? So, in my free time I have been studying how to get organized and how to really clean. (The cloth diaper study sessions are on the back burner for now) Guess what I found out? If I put into practice what I am studying, great things happen. ( Keep your "DUH" to yourself, please) After I finished that room, I recruited my eldest and moved on to her room. Because we are like that Rubbermaid family, the one on the commercial that says, "We have too much stuff", and we don't have enough places to put said stuff, some of the stuff has been ending up in the corner in my daughter's room. For shame. Not any more! Her room has now been revamped as well. Well, right now there is one bag that needs to be moved to the trash pile, and there is a broom laying face down in the floor saying "Break time! I surrender!" and there is a stack of books awaiting the arrival of a book shelf that will be moved in next week. But the floor is very visible! The junk has been eliminated. I had forgotten how much a kid can hoard for the sake of being lazy. But, I guess she may have gotten that from me. I am feeling so much better about the whole thing. Today I don't feel like a failure. Especially when I count up the 7 bags to Salvation Army, 2 bags to Birthright (a crisis pregnancy center), 3 bags of baby cloths to 3 different families, and so much trash that my husband thought I forgot to send the trash to the curb last week. There is something cleansing and refreshing going on. Maybe I will retrain the inner pack rat after all. there is hope! I envy the people that can maintain a clean and clutter free house. I am trying to become one of those people, and train my kids to be like that.